Nothing screams “Perversion!” like the annual Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco, America’s first homosexual Mecca — where mostly homosexual men (and some “straights,” using that term loosely) party in the city’s streets — many in near- or total nudity. AFTAH has documented the unprecedented public perversions and nudity of this bizarre outdoor “fair,” as police stand idly by. [See our photo-reports: Folsom 008 (part one); Folsom 2008 (part two); "Slavery Makes a Comeback" (Folsom 2008); "Up Your Ally" fair 2008; Folsom 2010 and Folsom 2007.] Here is the link to the Folsom Street Fair website (warning: offensive material). Below is the 2012 poster for this well-attended sadomasochism and “sexual freedom” celebration, which demonstrates that for the liberal minded, there are few if any limits to “tolerance.” THIS is the depraved end game of the Sexual Revolution. (Click on image to enlarge.) – Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH

I find it interesting how he attacks gays for this street fair while at the same time acknowledging that heterosexuals also attend and participate.

Oh well, I look at it as progress. In writings about past Folsom Street Fairs, LaBarbera was very reluctant to acknowledge heterosexual appearances there.

At any rate, I will say what I always say when Porno Pete starts on his fake outrage (which is extremely Freudian, seeing that he provides links to past "street reports" which he and his supporters "forced themselves" to view and talking about in lovingly long details):

I have never attended one of these nor do I have any desire to. So to generalize about the gay community because of those who attend this thing is like generalizing about heterosexuals because of the straight men and women who attend the fair.

Although between you and me, if it was discovered that the committee behind Folsom was paying LaBarbera under the table to publicize this event, I wouldn't be shocked.

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I'm still thinking this through so if it's unclear, just say so but . . .

My response was much the same as yours - I have no desire to go and I feel the need to say so. However, in and of itself, doesn't that represent part of the problem -that I feel the need to "prove" that I'm not a pervert just because I'm gay? Doesn't that imply a discomfort with an event like Folsom Street which betrays that at least a little bit I buy into the unspoken assumptions someone like LaBarbera is selling? I don't have to prove I'm worthy by declaring I would never attend a sexy street fair.

At the same time, the objection to events such as Folsom Street or Southern Decadence or what not is like an onion. Read the pearl clutching passages and you see a very clear pattern in which a host of objections are directed at the event but in a way they all cover up a deeper discomfort with sexuality.

Based on my own self image and discomfort with my body, I cant' see myself ever feeling comfortable enough to attend, but that's not a condemnation of those who do. What Porno Pete and people like him do, however, is condemn those who attend and do so at many levels both overt and covert. The objection to the poster is that is shows nekkid people and we're supposed to be shocked but notice that he never states that he has a problem with nudity but it's obvious he does. He clearly has a problem with gay people being sexual and it doesn't matter if they're at Folsom street or in the privacy of our own houses. At the end of the day, if it weren't this, he and folks like him would be objecting about something else gay people are doing. We can't win him over by not going so for those who want to go, I say more power to you.

Considering the obscenities and perversions of intellectual integrity, justice, the Golden Rule and on an on that the religious right produces...the Folsom Street Fair, when it comes to basic morality, is downright prudish.

On the other hand, as my mother always told me..."Just because all the other little boys are doing it, that doesn't mean that you should do it too."

About Me

Alvin McEwen is 44-year-old African-American gay man who resides in Columbia, SC.
McEwen's blog, Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters, and writings have been mentioned by Americablog.com, Goodasyou.org, People for the American Way, PageOneQ.com, MSNBC, The Washington Post, Media Matters for America, Crooksandliars.com, Thinkprogress.org, Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish, Newsweek, and Foxnews.com.
In addition, he is also a past contributor to Pam's House Blend,and a present contributor to Justice For All, Daily Kos, the Huffington Post, LGBTQ Nation, and Alternet.org.
He is the 2007 recipient of the Harriet Daniels Hancock Volunteer of the Year Award and the 2010 recipient of the Order of the Pink Palmetto from the SC Pride Movement as well as the 2009 recipient of the Audre Lorde/James Baldwin Civil Rights Activist Award from SC Black Pride. In addition, he is a two-time nominee of the Ed Madden Media Advocacy Award from SC Pride.